New Software Lets Your Canon Camera Be Used as a Webcam for a Mac

[Jimmy James]

Cool!

 

[tharitm]

Interesting. My camera on my iMac has been broken for quite some time. Will have to try with our M50.

Interesting indeed. I had looked into using my M50 for a web cam at the start of the shutdown ('cause MacBook Pro webcam) but it was much too convoluted a process.

how did you get the cable to connect to the PC? I noticed my M50 didn't come with the USB cable.

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

If Apple aren't going to put a decent web cam in I'm glad someone is making the effort to pick up the slack.

 

[kdekorte]

Why can't the iPhone be used in this way? I'd much rather place some kind of camera holder on the top of my laptop (improving the angle of the camera anyway) and leveraging the much higher resolution camera in the phone. Can they be paired up this way? Seems like there should be some blend in the handoff instructions to allow for this.

You can with the "NDI HX Camera" on your phone and "NDI Virtual Input" on your Mac. Doesn't work in FaceTime, but works in Facebook, Skype, etc...

 

[Dammit Cubs]

I hope this starts a trend where all manufacturers including sony and the M4/3 cameras are supported.

 

[tharitm]

Pro tip, if you want to enable this to be used with Zoom and other desktop app, disable the cosign feature on zoom desktop app with this code.

sudo codesign --remove-signature /Applications/zoom.us.app/

Not some random code that'll harm your Mac, simply obtained from Epocam https://www.kinoni.com/support-and-instructions/#Troubleshooting

Proof

 

[Charles50]

Canon does not get it. They only support the newest, high end cameras. There are a lot of old Canon cameras sitting in drawers that can shoot video and are cheap enough to use as webcams. But Canon don't support any of those.

 

[ElBerserko]

I tried with my old Canon 5D Mark II and it works. I chose 5D Mark IV for the download section and got the installer. It works exactly like in the demo video

It works, but the resolution looks horrible on the 5D II. Opening the beta cam device in QuickTime player shows a resolution of 640x360.

Nice to have some support for an 11 year old camera, but I suspect it is running against limitations with USB and the processor.

 

[MarkAtl]

Canon does not get it. They only support the newest, high end cameras. There are a lot of old Canon cameras sitting in drawers that can shoot video and are cheap enough to use as webcams. But Canon don't support any of those.

Especially if they sold an add-on lens for DSLRs optimized for webcam usage.

 

[atomic.flip]

Very cool, now Apple will never have to update their webcams! Just start selling multi-thousand dollar Canon cameras at the stores!

LOL literally my thoughts exactly!!!

 

[MacBH928]

Why is this news? When webcams were introduced they were basically a wire attached cameras, this is old tech, remember iSight?

Yeah, but the alternative is an ancient 720p "webcam". Otherwise, Canon probably wouldn't have bothered.

sad to see 720P considered ancient, I remember when this was HD quality. Funny thing, Apple still sell SD quality shows.

 

[atomic.flip]

I think this is great for upcoming streamers, vloggers, and working professionals for sales meetings, etc. You no longer have to buy a Capture Card which saves you over $100. While true, you could go with a standard webcam for most use cases, you just won't have the quality of a DSLR or Mirrorless camera. You also can't easily get a webcam right now due to the shortages created by COVID-19. Scalpers are having a blast charging $100-200 over retail value for some.

So, I have to give Canon kudos for delivering something that can alleviate the strain on the webcam market while also providing an alternative option for individuals that need webcam-like functionality. If you already have a DSLR or Mirrorless camera, this is a great option. If not, you'll probably not drop that kind of money unless you want to take photography up as a hobby or really care about how you look virtually. That's ok. It's good to have options.

oh geez. You’re absolutely right. Canon probably developed this feature out of necessity due to COVID-19

Either way, and lame 720P Apple integrated webcams aside, this indeed is a desired function that I’ve missed since the days of FireWire where it was largely possible with a number of high end digital video cameras (and I am including DSLRs and camcorders Etc.)

 

[DonutHands]

It pulls whatever video stream your camera uses for live view. You are not going to get the full resolution/framerate that your camera can produce. Still, whatever crippled resolution you get it will probably still look better than your built in camera or any $150 usb web cam.

 

[atomic.flip]

Why is this news? When webcams were introduced they were basically a wire attached cameras, this is old tech, remember iSight?



sad to see 720P considered ancient, I remember when this was HD quality. Funny thing, Apple still sell SD quality shows.

ahhh... this topic is one that has a sadly convoluted and history and still convoluted present. lol

Actually, unbeknownst to most, 720P was never considered an HDTV standard. It had and continues to have a special category of it’s own known as “HD Ready”.

IIRC 720P was a standard that came about simultaneously with 1080i and 1080P. And it was introduced primarily to address and appease the manufacturing limitations for Plasma televisions and Rear Projection televisions as well as the broadcast conversion limitations that 1080i signals imposed on markets not using appx 60hz for the electrical grid.


The very first HDTV signals were actually carried over analog. The shift to fully digital broadcasts were never driven by a demand in quality but rather a cheap way to cram more broadcast signals (channels) into a single analogue carrier wave, and similarly into the electrical and oddly even the digital optical carrier waves used by cabled technologies.

Bottom line is they had to have this odd mixed approach to integrating and transitioning from Analogue to fully digital that required a lot of hybridization and conversion back and forth.

a sweet spot that didn’t require as much fuss was 720P.... with one exception. It was not a multiple of either 480P / 480i or 540P/540i. This then presented another content challenge with respect to pre-existing source material and how to even offer it within and efficient 720P stream.

Thus it’s always been a bit of a Poorman’s or cheap way of getting HDTV to the masses, without having to concede that 720P was enough to warrant the standard’s bodies’ specific agenda.

oh and one more thing LOL. Since the 1930s anything more than a few hundred lines of broadcast material per frame was considered High Definition. So... if you wanna debate things further you could ground an argument in that preceding technicality. LOL
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absolutely. Autofocus and Exposure control is vastly superior as are (naturally) the core lenses‘ optics and the sensor sizes. Even cramming all that in a 720P container will look far better than a shoddy webcam in a 4K container.

 

[Michael Scrip]

It pulls whatever video stream your camera uses for live view. You are not going to get the full resolution/framerate that your camera can produce. Still, whatever crippled resolution you get it will probably still look better than your built in camera or any $150 usb web cam.

Exactly.

Even if you only get SD resolution... the optics are MUCH better in a DSLR compared to the pinhole camera in your laptop lid.

Plus... when you're on a Zoom call... you're usually a tiny thumbnail-sized image. Resolution doesn't really matter. And no one really cares how you look anyway.

I find that AUDIO is much more important and often neglected in video conferencing. People who don't mute their mics, have bunch of noise in the background, etc.

None of these DSLRs are known for stellar audio quality...

 

[norbinhouston]

Good, with Tim Cook’s cheapness, everyone using a Mac for video conferencing is suffering a crappy picture. This will at least make it better. But there’s no excuse for new macs to only have 720p FaceTime cameras. The whole world is seeing Tim’s folly.

 

[RogueWarrior65]

If I use a tilt-shift lens, will I look like a Lego figure on the video?

 

[nvmls]

Ah ok, I guess this is why they ship laptops with garbage webcams then.

 

[incoherent_1]

Great. I can precariously setup my $3000+ rig to serve as a webcam. Can’t imagine anything going wrong with that.

 

[Cosmoknot]

.

 

[PickUrPoison]

If Apple aren't going to put a decent web cam in I'm glad someone is making the effort to pick up the slack.

There are a few someones. Webcams have been a thing for 20+ years

 

[travelsheep]

No love for the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II + III ?

 

[yurc]

Try it anyway.

My Canon 70D isn't on the list either... but it works.

Well it sorta works... the image isn't totally full screen. But I'd rather have a black border around the screen than use a crappy built-in laptop webcam.

Thankfully I bought an Elgato CamLink 4K in February before all the craziness with the human malware. And I can use it with any HDMI camera... my Canon 70D, my Sony A7III or my Canon XA11 camcorder with XLR mics.

I think a capture device is the best solution... but at least Canon is throwing us a bone here. (though this feature should have been standard years ago...)

Because all original image sensor on most camera are 4:3 aspect ratio as far I know. On my Sony, I presented by wide screen aspect ratio so it would looks nice on smartphone, but I opt to use original sensor size anyways which is squarish 4:3

 

[Steve686]

At least they are making it almost native to Mac now. Gotta jump some hoops for this thing to come close.

 

[davidec]

Good job Canon. All the more reason to buy their products. Hope it works well with the M50 which is the vloggers current favourite.